Ref: 40/2011

Since 1891, 1 May has been celebrated as
International Workers’ Day, a public holiday throughout the world commemorating
and reaffirming workers’ struggle for labor rights and decent working
conditions.

The primary responsibility to protect and
implement workers’ rights lies with nation states, since they are responsible
for the implementation of international labor standards within the territories
under their jurisdiction. As the occupying power Israel has the responsibility
to ensure the right to work in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt),
comprised of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The
International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the UN Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (CESCR), inter alia, have confirmed the binding legal
responsibilities of Israel vis a vis the entire spectrum of human rights
of the Palestinian population under occupation.

However, the human right to work, which
includes each individual’s right to the opportunity to gain their living by
work which they freely choose or accept,[1] as well as the
right to safe and healthy working conditions[2], remains out of
reach for many Palestinians as result of Israeli policies enforced during its
long standing belligerent occupation of the oPt.

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the
approximately 585 checkpoints and other restrictions[3]
inhibit the free movement of people to get to and from work and make trade
difficult and costly. Confiscation of land and settlement activity have also
taken economic opportunity away from Palestinians who make their living from
agriculture or animal husbandry. As consequence, the unemployment rate has
reached 17.2% and this has had an impact on the food-security level of the
population (22% of households are food-insecure and an additional 12% are
vulnerable to food insecurity[4]).

In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli-imposed total
closure, tightened in June 2007 as means of “economic warfare” and collective
punishment of the civilian population – and thus illegal under the Fourth
Geneva Conventions of 1949 – has affected negatively all sectors of the economy

which were already damaged by the Israeli
military operations of December 2008-January 2009. This has resulted in a
corresponding rise in unemployment (now at 37.4%[5] compared to
pre-closure figures of 26.4%) and in a sharp increase in poverty (65%[6]) and food insecurity
(52% of the population is food insecure and an additional 13% is vulnerable to
food insecurity[7]). Should the
illegal closure be kept in force, the plight of unemployed workers will
inevitably further deteriorate with evident implications on the workers and
their families’ human dignity.

Unavoidably, since working opportunities in the
formal economy are limited, thousands of people have found no alternatives but
to risk their own lives working in the tunnels along the border with Egypt.
According to PCHR documentation, since 2006 165 workers, including 8 children,
have been killed in these circumstances. Furthermore, farmers and rubble
collectors are affected by Israeli
unilaterally declared “no-go areas” on land located up to 1,500 meters from the
fence dividing Israel and the Gaza Strip. Anyone entering or present in these
areas – which comprise approximately 17% of Gaza’s territory and 35% of Gaza’s
agricultural land[8] – is under high
risk of being shot by Israeli border patrols. Likewise, Gaza fishermen, today
only 3,700 compared to 10,000
in 2000[9], are often
attacked by Israeli war vessels when fishing 3 nautical miles from the shore,
although they are entitled to fish up to 20 nautical miles according to the
Oslo Agreements.

In 2010[10],
at least 15 Palestinian workers, including four children, were killed by
Israeli forces while working in the  “no-go areas” on the land and at sea. Another
169 workers, including 45 children, were injured. 

PCHR reiterates its condemnation of these
crimes which are part of a long-standing pattern of violations perpetrated by
Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory and denounces the infringement of
the inalienable human rights of the Palestinian population.